Recycled Organic Living Soil (ROLS) and No Till Thread

And what about your soil structure - do you amend aeration (beyond the chunkiness of the stems you add back in)? As far as I've seen, that usually is the reason why no-tills get broken up and remade?
Cheers!

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Malted barley powder. I did sort of remix the soil between #2 and #3 to add more pumice but that's it.

I think the idea is that the worm aerated the soil over time. When you topdress add some aeration to the ewc.

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Yes but it is also being observed that when worms work and rework the soil over time, it tends to get that silty spent consistency. So having enough aeration and replenishing the microbial foodstock to keep them rebuilding that soil structure is what to my mind is the crux of no-tilling in containers

So about what percentage would you estimate your aeration to be in the mix now?
Must be a good ratio, if you haven't had the urge to remix since!

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Well it started as the very first BAS mix...I think it was just called "living soil". Anyways, it had a decent amount of rice hulls for aeration but I found that they were almost completely gone by the middle of the 2nd cycle. So basically I figured out what percentage of the 33% aeration was rice hulls and just added that back in pumice. So the overall percentage of aeration isn't different, it will just be consistent since the pumice won't break down over time. Does that make sense?

Well it started as the very first BAS mix...I think it was just called "living soil". Anyways, it had a decent amount of rice hulls for aeration but I found that they were almost completely gone by the middle of the 2nd cycle. So basically I figured out what percentage of the 33% aeration was rice hulls and just added that back in pumice. So the overall percentage of aeration isn't different, it will just be consistent since the pumice won't break down over time. Does that make sense?

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Yes it does, thank you!
I had lava rock in my first designated no-tills, when I had to uppot a plant in the, I think it was thrid, cycle, I noticed how the chunks had pretty much sunken to the bottom of the pot.

Now, pumice is lighter, but what size are the chunks you use?
My lava rock was at 1cm+ diameter, I have this hunch that was too large for them to stay suspended as they should to fulfill their function properly...
Cheers!

ok I'm finally seeing what I feel i should be seeing. 30 days in, and 40 to go! Brainwreck. only in 5 gals... amazing growth... feeling satisfied! thinking these will be my best two yielding plants of the year, and I'm hoping for successful repetitions of this from here on out! Thanks for all your help over the last couple years RIU Organic Crew (the RIUOC haha). Here's to you guys.

There's some bit of consensus that 15 gallon fabric pot is a minimum for no-till. I'm sure some excellent stuff has been done in less, but again, I'm relating a small group's thoughts on this. I'm starting a friend off with a no-till grow. Two 15 gallon Geopots. We may introduce clover for a month in between grows, to replenish some N and to avoid mono-cropping. Plant diversity / companion planting is a good thing.

We're also starting seeds in 2 gallon Velcro Geopots (very very handy thing, that velcro) and transplant after sexing. This'll be a short veg of 3 weeks

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Dear Rrog, Dear Gentlefolks,
I just started reading this thread. I am on page 10/406 but by Jah I will read all posts(within the next decade). on my first run since 1994... Having a horticultural background I designed my own soil. I work like a mad man on my micro herd, brewing all sorts of teas, using SST, have my worm bin. I run two 2'x2' tents with custom made LED's. One for flowering and one that I turned into two levels for rooting, bonsai mothers and vegging.
Due to limited space and as I wish to have 4 plants flowering all the time I have to use 6gallon pots. Is not till out of the question with this small size pot? I like to take my girls out and look around. but if it is really necessary I guess I could just put one giant pot in the flowering tent but not my favorite setup.
Any suggestions/ idea?

Well hello again fellow Rols and microbe enthusiasts!!! This has been my third successful ROLS run and I am incredibly grateful for this thread and those who share there knowledge. I have a quick question for anyone whom cares to answer. I am moving to a new property next year and the water on the property has very high PH, like 9.5 or 10. Something crazy. Do I need to take any extra precautions or will Coots recipe be balanced enough to handle that water. Thanks so much for any and all help!!!
Peace

Dear Rrog, Dear Gentlefolks,
I just started reading this thread. I am on page 10/406 but by Jah I will read all posts(within the next decade). on my first run since 1994... Having a horticultural background I designed my own soil. I work like a mad man on my micro herd, brewing all sorts of teas, using SST, have my worm bin. I run two 2'x2' tents with custom made LED's. One for flowering and one that I turned into two levels for rooting, bonsai mothers and vegging.
Due to limited space and as I wish to have 4 plants flowering all the time I have to use 6gallon pots. Is not till out of the question with this small size pot? I like to take my girls out and look around. but if it is really necessary I guess I could just put one giant pot in the flowering tent but not my favorite setup.
Any suggestions/ idea?

6gallonly yours,
M

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I run my no-tils in 7 gal pots. I get about 6-7 runs even with amendments in between. My 7gal pots are only for flowering plants from 50-60 day cycles. So about a year then my yields start falling off. Again even with amendments and teas adding it new mycos (Mykes brand) beginning of every cycle.

Recycle the soil into outdoor compost piles and before the end of the last cycle, mix my new soil (Coots mix) let sit and b-ready for the next round... use a good bit of home made compost for my humus portion, then send a sample to my State AG county extension service for a soil test. Amend if needed. Done for another 6-7 rounds.

With 15-20gal pots I'm sure I could go a while longer between new soil.

Sooo to answer your question, yes 6gal will work, just won't last as long as a larger container before you need to recycle and mix new batch. I've done 5gal no-til for 10 rounds but kept suffering loss of yields after say 5 rounds.. Nothing but flowers in soil over extended time will give the soil a pretty hard workout.

As long as everything is the same... no pests etc, my yields per plant are 3.5 zips dry wt. more = bonus; less, I start to look closely at my soil and make additional necessary amendments next round.

Ah, dolomite. This might be the reason for your deficiency. It acts as a Ph buffer waaaaaaaaaaybefore it breaks down to make any magnesium available to the plant. Replace Dolly with a 50/50 mix of gypsum and crushed oyster shell. Another issue is how it is nailing your Ph really high. Dolomite lime removes the olant's capability to control Ph. Nutrient absorption changes per nute as Ph and temps change. I have a feeling your narrow Ph range coupled with lower temps are also affecting uptake. Epsom salts work very well for may deficiency, half tespoon per gallon water should do the trick every time. But in my OPINION top dressing worm castings is the best emergency treatment for most non bug issues.

Ok I know this is a post from 689 days ago but did you feed her alfalfa SST? my girls that get alfalfa SST go completely berserk. Apical dominance totally suppressed! little gals with huge afros! dense as a spaghetti dish!

I use Alfalfa meal along with Kelp Meal for stretch ( <-- see what I did there?), in my teas and also in the soil mix. I sometimes get a good stretch from the Kelp Meal AND a big ass bush. Sometimes I get a short big ass bush that takes me 6hrs to trim... I like the stretchy-ness better than the bushiness for indoors.. well to a point!

I think adding to soil works well, probably better than the tea ... Tricanatol FTW. I usually just do a EWC + Kelp meal for my ACT... haven't don't an SST for a while. Too lazy...

Wanna see berserk?? try some Malted Barley Tea... ground up to a fine powder - 1oz of Malted Barley seed (think brewing beer) - ground fine to 1gal RO or filtered water... results over night. Do that early in flower then a few weeks later.

I use Alfalfa meal along with Kelp Meal for stretch ( <-- see what I did there?), .

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Actually no! what DID you do here? Is kelp meal counteracting the dwarfication (gotta love this one) cause by Tricanatol? Well yes to be specific I know it is not making the plant smaller but just inhibiting apical dominance. It is so strong that when I tried to trim a bit the plant to shape it up, the growth was sooooo dense that I could not grab the branches. I did not click any pix of them. Now they are trained.

Jumping from pillar to post; does anyone know what this is. about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch and moving around the pots in the soil. fairly quick and tries to avoid light at all cost. I can not spot much more than this handsome fellow. not so many but I see one or two at least every day.

Creepingly yours,
M

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Don't you have it backwards?? Triacontanol causes stretch! Why I don't use in my ACT after 2 week of flowering. Before that for shure.... so not sure if serious. Back up you science with some .... well science.

Since we agree to disagree, I'll point you to some factual info regarding this awesome amendment. I use Alfalfa meal mainly in my soil mix.... get the soil mix and compost right ... not much else to do cept water FTW.

Here's a short read on it - this one specifically says "alfalfa meal increased the dry weight and water uptake"

Found nothing on apical dominant suppression... isn't that what you're doing by "trimming" your plants, which BTW I am NOT and advocate of.. trim at transplant in early VEG, yes after that... diminishing returns unless you want to grow your plant for 6 months...